A Message to Garcia

President McKinley -- body by Dell Henderson, voice by John Carradine -- orders Lieutenant John Boles to deliver a message to rebel General Garcia that the US will begin a war against Spain, and cooperate with him. Along the way he is pursued by German spy Alan Hale, and picks up as aides Cuban rebel Barbara Stanwyck and US Marines deserter Wallace Beery.

The last two are inventions for the movie. Beery plays a variation on Long John Silver, and Miss Stanwyck is as hot as a jungle. Neither did the real Lieutenant Rowan head down to Cuba as a stoker carrying a letter. He traveled comfortably with an oral message. That, however, would not have made an interesting movie, and producer Raymond Griffith and director George Marshall lay it on thick.

What will surprise most people, given his fallen reputation, is how good Boles is: simultaneously intrepid, inventive, naive, and romantic. It's romantic piffle as history, a staple of the moom pitchers, but a lot of fun.

.. from 20th Century Fox and director George Marshall. Lt. Andrew Rowan (John Boles) is on a secret mission from President McKinley to deliver a message to Cuban revolutionary General Garcia. Rowan enlists the help of local scoundrel Dory (Wallace Beery) and vengeful plantation owner's daughter Raphaelita (Barbara Stanwyck) to find the reclusive revolutionaries, all the while being hunted by the Spanish government forces led by German Dr. Krug (Alan Hale).

This is a highly-fictionalized account of a real incident during the Spanish-American War. Boles is passable as the heroic lead, and he gets some good scenes near the end when he's being tortured. Stanwyck isn't exactly the first name I'd think of when casting a Cuban girl, and she really doesn't do anything to make that more believable other than use a few Spanish phrases and maybe darkening her hair a little. Beery plays the same boozy, disheveled slob with a heart of gold that he played so often. I'd heard this was awful, so maybe that tempered my expectations enough that I didn't mind it so much. Hale is effective as the villain.

A Message to Garcia has two sterling stars in its cast; Wallace Beery and Barbara Stanwyck. It also features John Boles as a romantic lead for Stanwyck. The film vaguely interesting, but only for the two lead stars. The storyline is not strong enough to gain any momentum. Stanwyck as a Cuban is not the best of casting. (Wouldn't Delores Del Rio have been a much better choice?). Interesting from a historical perspective.

Elbert Hubbard's famous essay on how Lieutenant Rowan of the United States Army delivered a message to Cuban rebel general Garcia from President McKinley was embellished to an action adventure story with some horrible casting. I'm betting the real story of Rowan's journey through Cuba was far more interesting.

The horrible miscasting of Barbara Stanwyck as a Cuban senorita is the main problem. She who adopted a nice brogue for The Plough And The Stars and Union Pacific probably would have made it worse had she talked with an accent in A Message To Garcia. I'd like to think that Darryl F. Zanuck in one of the first features of the newly formed 20th Century Fox Studio would have tried for Dolores Del Rio.

I'm sure Zanuck laid out some big bucks to Louis B. Mayer for the services of Wallace Beery. I agree with another reviewer that someone who had spent 10 years in Cuba living hand to mouth as Beery's character had, would have picked up some working knowledge of Spanish. But Beery was good box office back then and Zanuck was no fool that way. What there is of the picture he steals from John Boles playing the real life Lieutenant Rowan and Stanwyck playing a fictional senorita with whom he has a romance.

A Message To Garcia is a nice, but feeble attempt to tell the story of a most intriguing espionage tale.

Turgid, set bound drama with some wild miscasting in central roles. It's not that the film isn't filled with some very good performers, Beery is believable as a renegade wanderer looking for the prime advantage but he's the only actor that really seems to fit. John Boles gives his usual block of wood performance, a dull hole at the center of the movie. The most ludicrous of all is Barbara Stanwyck, a great actress yes but a native born Cuban senorita? never! They couldn't have borrowed Lupe Velez or Dolores del Rio? Perhaps not Cubans either but at least being Latin they would have not stood out so glaringly.

All great stars have turkeys in their filmographies this is one manages to take down both Missy and Wally Beery. What could have been an interesting rendering of a historical event becomes just so much studio fodder to fill a double bill.